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Tuesday, 2 August 2011

How the land lies

Pinocchio - from Wikipedia

In some ways we need lies. Lies make sure good ideas go through a baptism of fire before they are accepted, but it can go too far and now it clearly has. We have institutionalized the lie through PR, advertising, marketing and political spin. We have brought lying into the fold, accepted it, nurtured it. We even have university degrees in public relations - churning out formally qualified liars, consultant liars presumably even distinguished liars.

We have become accustomed to a ruling elite that now lies to us as a matter of political routine. The UK state broadcaster passes on obvious lies from vested interests, misleads us with partial information, or even no information at all. It takes its compulsory licence fee and pays us back with infantile 'entertainment' and bad faith.

Elsewhere we are lied to about everything from the risks of daily life to climate change, dietary issues, the EU, the housing market to national finance. Somehow, the lies, deception and misdirection have become an intrinsic aspect of how we do things. Lying, in the sense of misinforming or misdirecting, has become normal. It was never uncommon of course, but in modern times I think we are entitled to nourish ourselves and our children on something better, something more adult, more grown-up than a diet of lies.

It is blindingly obviously that lying has gone too far and we need to move on, need to do something about it. We have to give up on exaggerating, misleading and misinforming because this is how the web of lies begins. The threat is serious, real and obvious. Our culture of lying threatens us with social, economic and political problems so severe that we can’t handle them.

Why can't we handle them? Simply because we lie about the problems, lie about their severity, lie about the solutions, lie about the risks, lie about who is responsible, lie about what is responsible and above all, we lie about the alternatives. So what are the symptoms?

We have an adversarial political system based on parties - lying machines with no other goal than political power. There has to be something better.

UK democracy has disappeared thanks to party collusion and lies about the EU.

Housing is unaffordable for young families thanks to covert distortions of the housing market, the real problem being hidden by lies. (Thanks to Mark Wadsworth for that one).

Our tax system is absurdly complex, unfair and economically irrational. Simple, transparent alternatives are met with lies. (Thanks to Mark Wadsworth for that one too).

Energy policy is a vastly expensive shambles thanks to lies about climate change.

We have a National Health Service no country in the world would copy, kept afloat by tax and lies.

State education excludes parents, children and teachers from policy-making. Improvements are prevented or diluted by lies.

Our state broadcaster is incapable of dispassionate, adult broadcasting, incapable of radical, critical analysis, entirely beholden to the ruling elite, the status quo, vested interests and its own survival.

Popular public houses are closing in their thousands as we are pestered with lies about passive smoking.

We have grown cynical about a constant drip-feed of health and dietary advice, most of we know is unsound, almost none of which is based on reliable science.

Above all, we have a ruling elite that actively conspires against our interests, lies to us as a matter of policy, covertly supports a vast burden of vested interests and is less honest, ethical and moral, more prone to criminal activity than the citizens it claims to govern.